Method for Digitally Labelling Websites

ABSTRACT

A host website, method and system for digitally labelling websites or subscribers with digital labels which represent characteristics or qualities of the website is disclosed. Digital labels are stored on host websites, each of which is directed to a specific subject or activity. The host website can also provide digital labels for storage in other host websites. The host website is provided with artificial intelligence capabilities. Methods and systems for asymmetric access in a host website database are disclosed.

PRIORITY

This application is a Divisional of application Ser. No. 12/624,350,filed Nov. 23, 2009, which is a Continuation in Part of application Ser.No. 09/791,440 filed Feb. 22, 2001, which claims priority to Provisionalapplication Ser. No. 60/238,303 filed Oct. 4, 2000.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to data-gathering and digital labellingmethods for websites, and the structure and operating processes of aspecialized Host Website whose function is to maintain a library ofwebsite digital labels and to use these labels to assist in Internetsearches. Embodiments of the invention also relate to the use oflow-level artificial intelligence in executing Internet searches; and toa specialized “ergonomic” webpage graphic structure which furtherfacilitates Internet searches by presenting a more intuitive interfaceto users.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The original concept behind what has become today's Internet was toserve as a robust multi-path method of communication among persons whoalready knew each other and what they were talking about.

Due to the Internet's dramatic evolution into an open system for largenumbers of participants with different purposes, key aspects of Internetmechanics are poorly suited to the functions they are being called uponto play. The small number of original users did not warrant hierarchicalagglomerations of addresses on the Internet analogous to library mainsections which agglomerate books of similar subject or nature. Suffixessuch as .com and .net are used by so many different entities as to bemeaningless as agglomerations. Moreover, there are no publicly-availablemechanical means for finding or visiting sites preferentially accordingto their suffixes. Without manual inspection, a website for a restaurantis indistinguishable from that of a day school, or a mining company.

As a consequence of these deficiencies, the Internet poses seriousproblems for both “publishers”—those who operate websites in order topresent information to the electronic world at large, and“surfers”—those looking for information without a known website addressin mind. For publishers, the issue is how to get one's website noticedin an increasingly crowded field; for surfers, the issue is how to findwhat's out there.

Search engines have provided a partial solution, but not a definitiveone, and unfortunately one which has led much of the Internet communitydown the wrong path. On behalf of surfers, a search engine starts with asurfer-inputted word or phrase, and “reads” vast numbers of sites,looking for word or phrase matches or exclusions (for simplicity, “wordmatches”). However, word matches only give clues as to a site's nature,not unambiguous information about a site or its publisher. As a result,searches generally yield a large number of matches, most of which do notanswer the surfer's needs. Furthermore, most surfers are not willing tospend substantial time culling through the large number of matches.Later “refinements”, such as frequency or prominence weighting, orcounting linkage to a given site, has not significantly improved thequality of search results.

The word-match technology used by search engines is well-suited forresearch. News articles and academic papers which refer to specializedterms or specific names can often be searched for with great accuracy.However, as shown above, word-match technology is rather poorly suitedto finding commonplace commercial information, which is, however,exactly what most publishers—the Internet's paying constituents—aretrying to offer through the Web. As a result of the known difficultiesof getting found on the Web, many commercial entities simply choose notto have a website at all.

Realizing their weaknesses, most popular search engines now heavilysupplement their computerized searches with human research and judgment,and contractual arrangements with outside parties for the provision ofdata.

For example, a Yahoo search for “Denver restaurants” will yield, not agenuine search engine result, but a link to CuisineNet, arestaurant-list site. This site was clearly assembled by hand by a groupof food writers covering a rather small number of restaurants for ametro area of Denver's size.

An Alta Vista search for “Los Angeles plumbers” initially yielded 100%garbage under the computer-managed websites-only search, but wassalvaged with a link to what was evidently a manually constructed“Yellow Pages” section, which had a large number of plumber listings.

Hence, while touting themselves as “high-technology” enterprises with“powerful” search engines, many portals are in fact relying more andmore heavily on “low-tech” human intervention. Moreover, althoughportals are generally supposed by the public to be impartial andnon-discriminatory vehicles for finding information on the Web, it isevident that to provide apparently satisfactory search results, theymust deviate more and more from this ideal.

The Internet now has tens of millions of sites, with thousands morecreated daily. The limitations of search engines and increasing relianceon human intervention—inherently slow, unwieldy, and prone toprejudice—therefore virtually guarantee that the overwhelming majorityof sites on the Internet will not be reliably found by their intendedaudiences, that many will choose not to bother having a website, andthat much of the Internet's potential for enabling commercialtransactions will not be realized.

The focus has been on making search engines more and more intelligent,in the hope that and early automobile companies competed for the bestmechanics. The focus instead should have been on making the jobfundamentally easier to do. This is what Gutenberg did when he inventedmoveable type, and Henry Ford, when he invented the assembly line.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

There is provided a Host Website system and method in which subscriberslabel their own products and services and in which similarly labelledobjects and services are stored in common locations with hierarchicalmulti-parameter labels.

The system includes Internet-related data-gathering, labelling, storingand searching methods. The system and method can best be appreciated bymetaphor: consider the Internet as a library whose books (websites) arenot only scattered at random but also indistinguishable from each otherexcept upon actually being opened. Internet portals are like librarianswho are resigned to the fact that the books (websites) are in disarray,but purport to help readers by speed-reading. The present inventioncreates order in the library by establishing discrete sections wherebooks (websites) can be organized by category, and by codifyinginformation about each book (website) on index cards so that readers canmore easily identify the books (websites) they need.

A special-purpose Host Website is established. It has a subject- orarea-specific scope. It accepts subscription listings from persons orentities related to the specified scope; these persons or entities may,but need not, have a website of their own; the listings are createdonline, automatically, and without human intervention or review on thepart of the Host Website. The listings provide contact information,descriptions, and hyperlinks to the subscribers. There would be aplurality of Host Websites covering (sometimes with overlaps) the entireconceivable population of Internet websites, whose owners would choosewhich or how many Host Websites on which to have themselves listed.

In the process of creating its listing online, each subscriber is askedquestions by the Host Website computer, with a view to determiningqualitative characteristics, such as: general nature (e.g., school);more specific nature (e.g., university); an enumeration of itsactivities, services, or products (e.g, medicine, law, business, etc.);its price range or an indicator thereof (e.g., state-sponsored); itsheadquarters and/or operating location(s) (e.g., Los Angeles, SantaBarbara, etc.); its payment and credit practices (e.g. scholarship forminorities); and similar data depending on the nature of the subscriber.

The Host Website computer poses questions automatically, takes accountof previous answers, and avoids asking inapplicable questions. When thedata-gathering sequence is concluded (a process of about 10 minutes), itconverts the answers into a plurality of digital labels evidencing eachof the identified qualitative characteristics. This can be effected withalmost any programming language capable of handling instructions in theform “If A [e.g., subscriber clicked a box saying it offers scholarshipsfor minorities], then B [instruction to computer to write an appropriatecode, e.g., “mnsch”, and associate it with this listing]. At any latertime, any subscriber could be searched for through the Host Website onthe basis of any configuration of digital labels, e.g., state-sponsoreduniversities in California which offer minority-eligible scholarships.To perform this search, a Host Website computer would scan its databasefor listings which have the “mnsch” label as well as the particularlabels for the other characteristics of being a school, more precisely auniversity, state-sponsored, in California.

Searches within a Host Website, with a defined scope, can therefore bemore precise and direct than is possible under any currently-used searchmethod on the Internet. Most important, from the viewpoint of thesubscriber, the multi-parameter digital labelling and the Host Websitetogether provide assurance that it will be found by its targetaudience—not the case for most websites today. For example, ahypothetical Chinese restaurant, if it had a website, would be unlikelyto be found through a portal unless one knew its exact name; whereas ifit were listed on a hypothetical Host Website on New York City, it wouldsurely be found by many persons under varying circumstances and searchparameters. Moreover, when found through a Host Website, a website wouldbe in a high-relevance list and on the first few pages of hits, not thecase with portal search results, in which the valid answers if any areoften hidden in a sea of irrelevance.

At any time after creating its listing, a subscriber can go online againand amend its contact data or its digital labels. For example, if therestaurant has changed its phone number or has a new website address, ornow charges higher prices, these can be reflected immediately online.

A Host Website computer is also endowed with artificial intelligence inthe search process, by which is meant that it is programmed tounderstand synonyms, make suggestions to the user, and offer means ofdistilling search results, among others. Searchers may therefore useeveryday terminology without having to wonder what magic words might bein the texts of websites they are looking for. For example, a searchermay be interested in hotels in Manhattan with king-size beds in the“moderate” price range. There is no way to elicit a meaningful responseon this request from a conventional search engine. In contrast, a HostWebsite dedicated to New York City, when asked for “hotel”, “inn”, or“accommodations”, could be programmed to recognize any of these words asmeaning lodging, and to make the judgment (since there are many of thesein New York City) that it should immediately offer a number ofparameters by which to define the search, including bed-types, pricerange, and other qualities, so as to get a meaningful response and not alist of thousands or millions of websites which happen to have the word“hotel” in them somewhere.

All existing search technologies on the Internet are based onword-matches or “keywords”, which are mere character-strings of unknownsignificance. Inherently, there is no way to make a word-search“intelligent”. “Intelligence” involves and requires manipulation ofsymbols, which is precisely what digital labels are. The use ofartificial intelligence in a search is only possible with a databaselike a Host Website's, which is based on unambiguous digital labels.

Multi-parameter digital labelling can also be extended to “PersonalPreference” use, to identify websites with content that may bedistasteful to some users; and “I Want Mail” labels, by which users cansignify their demographic characteristics and ask to be notified ofcertain types of news, event, or commercial offer.

Finally, Host Websites have a specially-designed graphic interface whichis “ergonomic” and considerably easier to use than most existing webpagedesigns.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be more clearly understood from the followingdescription when read in connection with the accompanying drawings inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of the operational steps for commencing alisting;

FIGS. 2 a and 2 b show a flow chart of the operational steps forcreating a particular category of listing;

FIGS. 3 a and 3 b show a flow chart of the operational steps forcreating a particular listing;

FIGS. 4 a-k are screens showing the user interface during operationalsteps in the flow charts of FIGS. 1-3 b;

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of the operational steps for creating and storingmulti-parameter digital labels in a database;

FIGS. 6 a and 6 b show a flow chart of the search logic; and

FIG. 7 shows an ergonomic webpage.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

As discussed above, subscribers label their websites and the labels aredigitized. A “label” is something which identifies contents, or providesinformation about the subscriber or his website. Generally, the labelsare multi-parameter digital labels. That is, a plurality of labels, eachone conveying unambiguous qualitative data about an item, its maker, orits owner, in digital form are created. This permits an item to beidentified by computers according to the presence, absence, orconfiguration of the labels. An example of two-parameter labelling is tolabel a list of people. In computer field “A”, place a “0” or a “1” toindicate if a person is male or female, respectively. In field “B”,place a 0 to indicate a college graduate, and a blank (null entry)otherwise. Should one want to identify males who are not collegegraduates, the computer would search Field A for 0s, and Field B fornull entries. The conjunction of the two sets would yield the desiredlist of males.

Multi-parameter digital labelling could help identify and sort websitesaccording to various configurations of characteristics, with far greaterprecision and conciseness than search engines or systems which merelylist sites under various categories. Multi-parameter digital labelscould be used to indicate, for example: the nature of an entity or ofits activities; location or service area; price range; specific productsor services offered; credit and payment terms; exact facilities offeredto customers; and many other forms of unambiguous qualitativeinformation which could later be digitally manipulated to identify theentity under a variety of search circumstances. Information that is noteven on a site could be encoded for the site. For instance, acorporation's site might not mention that it is a Fortune 500 company;but this fact could be labelled.

In accordance with one feature of the present invention, a specializedDigital-Label Website (Host Website) is established, with the principalpurpose of creating and domiciling multi-parameter digital labels.Alternatively, several Host Websites could be established, one for eachspecified subject. Owners of websites (subscribers) would be free toselect which of these, or how many of these, to be digitally labelledon. The advantage of this approach is that in each distinct such HostWebsite there could be a common context for publishers and users, andeach subject's idiosyncrasies could be taken into account. This wouldsimplify both the process of creating labels and of searching. Theseconcepts are discussed more fully under Host Websites. Websitepublishers would go online to a Host Website and answer a series ofquestions designed to gather the information needed to create thedigital labels. To facilitate this process, the questioning procedurewould preferably feature low-level artificial intelligence, adapting thequestions according to the previous answers given. An example of this isthat restaurants would be asked what price range they are in, but thisquestion would not be posed to a civic organization. Upon completion ofthe question sequence, the Host Website computer would requestverification, create an identifier code for the website being labelled,ask for a password from the user, and then complete the process byautomatically recording all the appropriate digital labels in itsdatabase. With the passwords, entities could later amend their labelsonline.

The automatic process of creating digital labels is not dependent on anyparticular hardware or form of software. Virtually any computerprogramming language can be employed to achieve the same net results,which are:

1. As a subscriber clicks on a multiple-choice or Yes/No answer to aquestion, write into a temporary file a digital label (or alphanumericlabel which can be digitally processed) which uniquely refers to thesubstantive data expressed by the answer.

2. Accumulate the digital labels for all answers until the onlinesubscription process is completed and the subscriber requests listing.

3. Once listing is requested, the accumulated digital labels areautomatically transposed into permanent files on the Host Website. Thiscan be done, for example, by maintaining database columns for eachpossible kind of digital label, and under each column placing theidentifier numbers for all listings to which this label applies. Forexample, there might be a digital code “usnyuw”, meaning a location inthe Upper West Side of Manhattan. Under the “usnyuw” column would be theID numbers of all the subscribers located in this part of Manhattan.When a listing is created, the computer would read the labels noted inthe temporary file, find the columns for each label, and write thissubscriber's ID number under each applicable column. There are severalalternate methods of structuring a digital-label database withessentially identical effect except for computer processing times. Usersare able to search the Host Website's database by specifying types ofqualitative data found on the digital labels. This would allowhigh-precision results. Search methods are more fully described below.

Most website publishers, especially commercial entities, would wish tohave their sites digitally labelled, in order to improve their chancesof getting found on the Web by interested searchers. Indeed, with veryfew exceptions, getting found is the primary worry of Websitepublishers. Provision could also be made for entities without websitesto register basic information about themselves and be digitallylabelled; this would be useful while their websites are still underconstruction. Also, entities with modest means or scope could view aregistration and labelling on the Host Website as an affordablealternative to having their own website, and an easy way to become aparticipant in the Internet.

The multi-parameter digital labels thus far described are “pure” digitallabels. For example, in the process of listing on the Host Website, anentity may indicate that it is a wine merchant, where “wine merchant” isa predefined term within the listing process, and this phrase istherefore “understood” by both the subscriber and the website computer.

In some circumstances, the use of “hybrid” digital labels may beexpedient, especially where the multiplicity of possible responses makesit impractical or impossible for the Digital Labelling Website to beexhaustively pre-coded for every contingency. A hybrid digital label isone in which the field is unambiguously digitally defined as a certainkind of field, but the subscriber entry in the field is a characterstring.

For example, a Digital Labelling Website may invite subscriber winemerchants to enumerate the wines they stock, these enumerations to berecorded in a database field which it predefines as “wine merchant stocklist.” The subscriber may then enter text (character strings), e.g.,“Chateau Latour 1961.” This entry, despite being a character string, nowhas a known and unambiguous significance, which is that it represents awine of some sort offered by a wine merchant. With an appropriateinterface, a site visitor could type out a particular wine name, inresponse to which the Host Website computer would perform a word-matchsearch which is limited to this certain database field (“wine merchantstock list”). Instead of tediously searching the entire Internet for allmentions of “Chateau,” “Latour” and “1961”—which is what allconventional search engines would do, thereby yielding millions ofirrelevant hits, with the aid of the hybrid digital label, a HostWebsite computer (which is programmed for the purpose) could quickly andprecisely identify all the wine merchants on the Web which stock ChateauLatour of any vintage, and whether any stores at all have its 1961vintage.

Using ordinary word-matching technology, an attempt to find bottles ofLatour 1961 for sale on the Web would meet with little success; if thephrase were even interpreted correctly as a certain vintage of a certainwine estate, the search engine would most likely turn up an article onrare wines and not a list of ready and willing wine sellers.

Hybrid digital labels are therefore comparable in utility to “pure”digital labels in certain applications, especially in dealing withpotentially long enumerations of products, brands, persons and similarkinds of items.

Multi-parameter digital labelling of sites could be performed manually.Illustratively, one would scour the Internet to identify sites thatreferred to wine makers. By interviewing the owners, reading wine books,and whatever other method, one could determine the location of eachwine-maker; what kinds of wine it makes; what price range the wines are;and so forth. All these pieces of information could be codified as setsof multi-parameter digital labels for each site, and serve to conveyunambiguous qualitative information about the site and its owner (thewinery).

To further improve on the process of digital labelling, as much aspossible of the process should be automated, by which is meant the useof any computer-based process which facilitates the work of a humandata-gatherer or encoder. Finally, websites can be labelledautomatically, i.e., without any human data-gatherer or encoder at all,by programming a computer to undertake the entire process of gatheringdata and creating digital codes. One such process will be presentlydescribed.

When the multi-parameter digital labelling of a website exists within orat least in the same computer as, the website itself, it could be termed“resident” multi-parameter digital labelling. At this time, residentlabelling is impractical on an Internet-wide basis because this wouldrequire accessing all the sites on the Web every time anyone conducts asearch. In contrast, “Non-resident multi-parameter digital labelling”refers to the maintenance, in a single location different from that ofthe website, of multi-parameter digital labels for that and other sites,within an overall construct for systematic multi-parameter digitallabelling as defined above.

All existing Internet search methods are based on word matches orlistings-by-category.

Multi-parameter digital labelling creates a foundation for a newapproach to Internet searches, one using artificial intelligence. Itshould be clarified that the term “artificial intelligence” as usedherein refers to “low-level” artificial intelligence with moderatereactive, adaptive, and semantic capabilities, as opposed to “strong”artificial intelligence with highly complex behavioural andcomprehension features. Nonetheless, even low-level artificialintelligence is qualitatively different from, and a significantimprovement over, the non-adaptive, inflexible-response capabilities ofsearches by word match or category listings.

Human intelligence is often distinguished from animal intelligence inthat it involves the ability to understand and manipulate symbols. Inturn, artificial intelligence is often described as the ability of amachine to mimic human intelligence; hence, artificial intelligence mustalso involve, to some extent, the understanding and manipulation ofsymbols.

Word-matching and category-listing activities are not symbolic instructure, so no search technology based on these could ever, by bothdefinition and practical demonstration, involve artificial intelligence.In contrast, digital labels are symbols, and a general system ofmulti-dimensional digital labelling can therefore provide the basis forsearches using artificial intelligence.

The forms of interaction between the computer and a user are predicatedby the aggregation of digital labels that are possible under the system.First, therefore, the computer must know all the labels possible withina given system. If this system were a subject-dedicated Host Website asdescribed further below, the number of possible labels would berelatively easy to work with.

Second, the computer must be taught how different kinds of labels relateto each other. Some qualities represented by labels are mutuallyexclusive (e.g., church or restaurant); some are enumerative (e.g., thefacilities of a hotel); some subsume others (e.g., a country locationsubsumes cities within the country); and so forth. The digital labelsmust be organized in discrete fields, with appropriate operators. Ahierarchical alphabetic code with six or more levels is contemplated, inthe form: XX.xx.(xxx)n.(xxxx)n.(xxxxx)n.(xxxxxx)y, where XX represents acompulsory label indicating a broad sector, e.g., Retailer, where xxrepresents another compulsory label indicating a specific sub-class(e.g., sporting goods store); where (xxx)n represents non-compulsory,non-bounded enumerations that relate to the products or services of theXX.xx (e.g., tennis shoes, golf balls, each of these having its ownthree-letter code); where (xxxx)n represents non-compulsory, non-boundedenumerations that flow from and are particular to the predecessor xx orxxx (e.g., Adidas, Maxfli); (xxxxx)n represents non-bounded enumerationsrelating to trade practices such as opening hours, shipping policies,etc., that are compulsory for certain XX.xx.xxxn combinations but notothers; and (xxxxxx)y represents a worldwide location code in which thefirst two letters indicate the country. The form of the code isunimportant, so long as the fields are accurately structured to reflectsubstantial realities. This stage of creating the artificialintelligence is analogous to teaching basic symbolic or abstractconcepts to a child, such as: an object may be round or square but notboth; an apple is never purple; something purple cannot be an apple;etc.

Third, the computer must be given an extensive vocabulary and syntaxwhich relates to the labels. This is the interface between the eventualhuman user and the digital labels. Creating this vocabulary and syntaxare a lengthy and involved process which must be carried out manually byhumans, because it is the equivalent of teaching the computer how humansthink. Fortunately, in a subject-dedicated construct, the likely formsof interaction desired by users can be readily appreciated andprogrammed for. The following box illustrates these concepts within ahypothetical Digital-Labelling Website focused on a city: 1 User InputProgrammed Computer Response DVD Find four specific xx.xxx digitallabels, identifying entities which sell DVD players, repair them, rentDVD discs, or sell DVD discs. Second-round response: offer to narrow thelist to one of these categories. DVD rentals; Find one specific xxx-typedigital label evidencing rental DVD; shops which rent DVDs (Sameresponse for all four DVDs for inputs; in practice, many more variationswould be hire; DVDs programmed to have identical meaning.) for rentRestaurant Block off entities which have the Specific XX-type codemeaning restaurant. Display on screen “Would you care to select a typeof cuisine; location; price range?” Walk user through any choices made.Identify those whose labels evidenced all the requisite characteristics.Al's If Al's is known to the website, shows phone, address, Restauranthyperlink if any. Does not list entries which use the word “restaurant”.Chinese Find one specific XX.xx combination. Evaluate list; ifrestaurant(s) short, show on screen; if long, ask for a locationparameter. Chinese Display on screen “Please indicate which of these youare looking for: restaurant; movie theatre; civic organization;government office; club. You may also ask me to perform a conventionalword-match search for ‘Chinese’.” china Find several specific xx.xxxcombinations evidencing stores which sell china, bone china, stoneware,glass tableware, porcelain tableware; display list, but at top of list,offer alternative: “If you meant the country, please click here.” Ifclicked, would then show consulate, UN mission, etc. At bottom of list,offers option “Any specific brand of china or type of tableware inmind?” [Box for user's response.]

Artificial intelligence searches are based on concepts rather thanword-matches or category listings, and the computer's response to eachinput is conditioned on knowledge imparted to the computer by its humanprogrammers. In the example above, the response to “china” evidences theprogrammer's belief that most users (in the context of a city-orientedHost Website) who use this word by itself mean dishes, but allows analternate possibility; whereas the response to “DVD” evidences theprogrammer's belief that any of the four possibilities is equallylikely, thus all four are immediately offered. As shown in the exampleabove, multi-parameter digital labelling permits second-rounddistillation to prune a large list down to a more manageable length.

The computer in the above example judges that persons in the citybrowsing for a restaurant will likely have both a type of cuisine and aneighborhood in mind, and may be concerned with price range, as well.This is best handled through a multi-parameter search from the outset,rather than forcing the user to follow a number of iterations beforebeing able to specify all the desired parameters. In contrast, thecomputer judges that persons looking for chinaware will be content tosee a city-wide list of vendors, but allows that a few will wish tospecify a particular brand of china, and further that many people willsay “china” when they mean porcelain, glass, or stoneware.

A well-designed artificial intelligence can therefore distinguish amongdifferent kinds of search concepts, “guess” the searcher's likelymotives and concerns, and proceed along appropriate lines. This cangreatly simplify even a complicated search. The very large differencebetween conventional word or category searches, and searches withartificial machine intelligence operating on a plurality of digitallabels, can be illustrated by example.

Digital labels can, for example, identify a website as one belonging to(a) a drugstore; (b) in the Upper West Side of New York City; (c) thatis open 24 hours. Because of the contextual knowledge of what kinds oflabels may have been created for the hypothetical New York City-focusedHost Website, a computer can be programmed to understand the phrase“all-night” as having the same meaning as “open 24 hours”, and“pharmacy” as having the same meaning as “drugstore”. Therefore, withinreason, a user may use his or her own terminology to initiate a search,and still get the same results, regardless of what words might (or mightnot) be on the target entries or websites. “All-night pharmacy” will beunambiguously understood by a digital-label-based search to mean thesame as “24-hour drugstore”. Once the first set of results comes back,the computer could similarly be programmed to recognize if the number ofhits is too large to be useful, and to suggest means for narrowing thesearch. For example, it could be programmed to suggest “Narrow the listto a particular location?”, and offer a list of districts in New YorkCity to choose from. Now, the user might select “Upper West Side”,yielding a list of all the 24-hour drugstores in the Upper West Side.

A word-match-based search on a portal will yield little usefulinformation about “all-night pharmacies”, much less in the Upper WestSide of Manhattan. If any such entities are turned up, they are almostsure to be lost among the several million “hits” that come back.

A search by category, on the other hand, will begin by instructing theuser to select a category from (typically) several dozen possibilities,each of which has multiply-nested sub-categories. After severaliterations, the user may then come to a list of drugstores, which willhave to be evaluated one by one in the hope of identifying a drugstorethat is both in the Upper West Side and open 24 hours. This isconsiderably more tedious than an artificial-intelligence guided searchwould be.

Present filtering software, intended to block Web material considereddistasteful by some persons, is inaccurate or based on keepingblacklists which are instantly out-of-date. Moreover, many of them onlyaddress sex-related websites, and not others which some may considereven more distasteful, such as “hate” or “school for terrorists”websites. Systematic multi-parameter digital labelling would allow theaccurate identification of such websites. The systems by which PersonalPreference labels could be created and used are:

1. A specialized “Personal Preference” website would be created toaccept online self-labelling by sites on parameters such as sex,violence, or hate content. All sites on the Internet would be invited tohave themselves labelled (or compelled to do so as a condition of havingan Internet address).

2. Sites would either receive null-report labels—no potentiallyoffensive content reported, or positive labels indicating that certainpotentially offensive characteristics were reported.

3. The Personal Preference website would maintain a library of all suchlabels. Persons would visit the Personal Preference website to registerpreferences as to kinds of content they do not want shown on theircomputers, and leave a password. Their preferences would be encoded in acookie (listing all the URLs which are to be avoided) deposited in theuser's computer or browser files; this cookie would be so designed as toprevent the browser from accessing unwanted sites. The cookie wouldautomatically update itself. Should the user change preferences, he orshe would re-visit the specialized site, and make new selections, whichwould alter the cookie.

4. Personal Preference labels could also be “resident” in each website,in a widely-agreed format and location. Browsers or filters could bedesigned to check for such labels, according to a user's preference,before opening other parts of a site, thus also thwarting “deep links”.This approach would require some alterations in Internetaddress-accessing protocols.

Personal Preference labels would help respect user preferences withoutinfringing on the First-Amendment rights of publishers. On the one hand,it may be presumed that a site with no label has potentially distastefulcontent. On the other hand, those who do label will likely be truthful,since a deliberate mislabelling would constitute (or could easily belegislated to constitute) a fraud or felony, which presumably could bepenalized with closure of the site. The use of Personal Preferencelabels thus allows an effective system for discriminating amongwebsites, not on the basis of content (which would be unconstitutional),but on the basis of truth-in-labelling.

The preferred embodiment of multi-parameter digital labelling andartificial-intelligence searches is through Host Websites, a new form ofwebsite which provides listings and information on entities, people, ordocuments sharing a common characteristic, on an open andnon-exclusionary basis, employing automatic multi-parameter digitallabelling to record unambiguous qualitative information, and whichoffers the use of these digital labels to the public to facilitatesearches. Such a Host Website is hereinafter called a Host Website.

The structural role of a Host Website is to provide a “patch” for theInternet's lack of hierarchical agglomerations of addresses. Each HostWebsite would represent a convenient means for Internet participantswith a common characteristic to self-agglomerate through one HostWebsite.

The configuration and operation of the Host Website will be more clearlyunderstood from the flow charts of FIGS. 1-3 b, 5, 6 a and 6 b and thescreen displays of FIGS. 4 a-4 k. The flow charts illustrate thecreation of a multi-parameter digital label and the process forsearching. This particular example is for a regional website in thePhilippines.

FIG. 1 is a programming flow chart for the introductory script when a“List Yourself” button on the screen is pressed by a subscriber or user.The user is presented with a display similar to the one shown in FIG. 4a in which he is advised that the Host Website is directed to listingsin relation to the Philippines. The user is then presented with severalchoices: Open a Questions and Answers text; Create a New PersonalListing; Create a New General Listing; Amend a Listing; and Delete aListing. Each of these choices results in a discrete module beingopened. Provision is made for a benign cookie which is extinguished oncea listing is completed, and whose presence at this stage would indicatea listing-in-process that was not completed in one session, noting wherethe listing left off; past answers can be retrieved from a temporaryfile in the Host Website database, so that the subscriber does not haveto re-enter the data.

Wherever possible, the List Yourself sequence employs “radio buttons,”subscriber choices which, when clicked or checked, immediately proceedto the next appropriate page without the necessity of clicking a Nextbutton. This saves time and effort (mouse movements/clicks, keystrokes)for the person entering a listing.

FIGS. 2 a and 2 b show a programming flow chart which assumes “Create aNew General Listing” was selected (i.e. user clicked “General” in FIG. 4a). This flow chart defines the sequence of gathering names and generalcontact data from the subscriber who is advised that he need not supplyall “other information” (illustrated in FIGS. 4 b and 4 c). This leadsto a choice from among thirteen broad categories (FIG. 4 d). Thesecategories were deemed appropriate in light of the subject. A HostWebsite on a different subject would have a different number ordefinition of categories.

Though not depicted in the flow chart, the programming underlying FIG. 4b is designed to accept either an organization name or a person's name,but not both. The act of typing a character in any box causes theautomatic erasure of any previous typing in the other box. Moreover, theprogramming also checks if an email address in the correct format hasbeen entered; and if not, it prompts the user to enter the emailaddress, and/or tells the user what is wrong with the address entered(e.g., no “@” symbol found, no dot-suffix found). These are examples ofthe use of low-level artificial intelligence to make the listing processsmooth and error-free, while minimizing keystrokes for the user.

FIGS. 3 a and 3 b show a programming flow chart which assumes that“Churches & Religious Organizations” was selected as a main category inFIG. 4 d. The visitor is now asked to specify whether it is an organizedreligion, a religious order or a specific place of worship that is beinglisted (FIG. 4 e), then what the religious denomination is (FIG. 4 f).With each answer given, the Host Website computer writes an appropriatealphanumeric code into a temporary file in its own database. This is a“scrapbook” file where all the digital labels created for alisting-in-process are stored.

There is a sub-routine which is presented only to those identifyingthemselves as both Roman Catholic and a Place of Worship, allowing thesubscriber to specify whether it is a cathedral, a basilica, a regularchurch, or a chapel. The page that would appear to the subscriber isillustrated in FIG. 4 g. This level of detail is a function of thisparticular country, and would not be warranted for, say, Indonesia.There is a further sub-routine which allows the specification ofactivities or facilities offered by the respondent; the page that wouldbe shown to the visitor is illustrated in FIG. 4 h. Finally, Places ofWorship (but not Organized Religions or Religious Orders) are asked tospecify a location. FIG. 4 i illustrates a location-query page as itwould appear to a visitor.

The location choices shown in FIG. 4 i are particular to Places ofWorship. These choices are programmed in anticipation of how a futuresite visitor might wish to search for a Place of Worship (e.g., withMetro Manila broken into several districts). A pulp-and-paper factory,for example, would be presented with different location definitions andchoices that are more appropriate for its nature (e.g., Metro Manilawould not even be a choice, it being a known fact that there are no suchfactories there, nor could there be). This is another example of howlow-level artificial intelligence can be programmed into a DigitalLabelling Website. The following are examples of the codes created whenthe user follows the routine of FIGS. 3 a-3 b. “CR” is written whenvisitors select G-2. “PW” is written when visitors select specific placeof worship. “RMN” is written when visitors select roman catholic. “CATH”is written when a PW/RMN coded visitor indicates cathedral. “phmkti” iswritten when visitors indicate the location in Makati the centraldistrict of Metro Manila. All respondents eventually wind up by beingasked to enter a text description (FIG. 4 j), for example, schedule ofservices, special interests, etc. The subscriber can then verify allprevious answers (FIG. 4 k), and click a Submit Listing (bottom of 4 k).Also within FIG. 4 k is a box which allows the user to indicate if it iswilling to receive information related to its field (which in this caseis Religion). This is an example of I-Want-Mail labelling.

FIG. 5 illustrates how the multi-parameter digital labels are createdand then permanently stored in the Host Website database. When a SubmitListing button is pressed (bottom of FIG. 4 k), the computer reads its“scrapbook” file on the listing-in-process; and searches for the columnsin its database which correspond to each label. Under each column, theunique ID number of the subscriber is written in. For example, theremight be a column in the Host Website database for the digital label“phmkti”, which means a location in Makati, the central businessdistrict of Manila. If a church, synagogue, or mosque had indicated aMakati location, its ID would be inscribed in the column titled“phmkti”, along with all other listed entities (restaurants, hotels,stores, etc.) which indicated a Makati location. The same will be donefor every digital label that applies to the listing. Hybrid digitallabels could be treated in essentially similar fashion. For eachpre-defined hybrid field, the unique ID number of each subscriber (withentries for that field) would be written in. Appended to that ID numberwould be a data row of unlimited length which includes each of the textentries, individually.

FIGS. 6 a and 6 b show the search logic in response to an inputted wordor phrase by a surfer. First, the Host Website computer checks if thereis a proper name which corresponds. In effect, a word-match search willbe conducted, but limited to fields which have been defined as name-typefields. This is an example of a hybrid-digital-label search. There areseveral fields defined as proper names such as main listing title,enumerations of alternate names of companies (e.g., “Coke” for Coca-ColaBottling Company), enumerations of corporate officers, and enumerationsof brands carried. If a user were to enter “IBM”, then IBM(Philippines), Inc., would immediately be accessed; while if a userentered “George Smith”, and there were a George Smith listed as anofficer of IBM, then Mr. Smith's entry would come up; and finally, if auser entered “Gucci”, stores which indicated that they stock Gucci branditems would be returned as search hits. Second (in addition to thefirst), the computer checks if the inputted word is on its Wordlinksdatabase—meaning it is a word or phrase that the computer “understands.”It would then search its database for entries with the appropriatedigital labels. “Xerox”, for example, refers to a company and also tophotocopying in general, so it would be on the Wordlinks database. A“Xerox” search would yield first Xerox (Philippines), Inc., then a listof other companies selling, manufacturing, or repairing photocopiers.Third, if there is a Wordlink, the computer evaluates if there areactual entries which correspond to the Wordlink, e.g., in the “Xerox”example, if there are listed entities which sell, make, or repairphotocopiers. If there are none (and if there was no proper-name match),it explains that it understands what the searcher is looking for, butdoesn't have any entries which match. If, for example, one were tosearch for “Manila resort”, the computer would scan its database andfind it has no resorts which are in Manila, and report this to the user.Fourth, the computer would count the number of hits turned up by aWordlink action, and if the list is greater than 4, offer (if one isavailable) a way of shortening the list. For example, a search for“Manila restaurants” is likely to yield a long list; before evendisplaying the results, the computer would ask the user to select a typeof cuisine; a more defined location in Manila, a price range, etc. Theuser could specify any, all, or none of the parameters offered, and thecomputer would then display the appropriate list.

Though not shown on the flow chart, as a matter of fairness to alllisters, the order of presentation of results to generic searches wouldbe randomized, so that AAA Plumbing is not always at the top of the listwhen a user enters “plumber”.

Finally, if there is neither a name-match nor a word/phrase that thecomputer has been taught to understand, then it would carry out aconventional word-search of its entire database. For each Host Website,when this happens the particulars will be logged and manually evaluated,with a view to expanding the Wordlinks database and thus the computer'svocabulary.

By establishing an agreed context for interaction between publishers andusers, Host Websites greatly facilitate the process. Unlike a portalwhich of necessity must try to be all things to all people, a HostWebsite can be graphically and mechanically structured to suit thesubject matter and make it easy for users to find the information theyneed. A Host Website can also be programmed to understand certain wordsand terms as having a particular meaning in the context of its subject.

Host Websites are open markets for information, and therefore efficient,unlike portals which pose effective, if unintended, barriers to entry.The right to list on a Host Website is unequivocal and not subject tohuman review; listings are initiated by the subscribers, which maytherefore choose which Host Website(s) to list on. This assures thateach Host Website has a self-selected population—a major step towardaccurate search results.

Host Website search results will be concise. Most searches by aconventional search engine will yield thousands to millions of “hits”,or possible answers. Even if the correct answer is there somewhere, itis nearly useless if it is buried in a mountain of non-answers.

Host Websites, by employing unambiguous qualitative multi-parameterdigital labels, also permit searches by artificial intelligence, asdescribed above.

Host Websites permit automated multi-parameter search, not definedsolely by matching words or phrases or by broad pre-determinedcategories (as is the case with all search engines and portals), but byqualitative characteristics such as price range, services provided orproducts sold, and others. An example of a multi-parameter search is onethat seeks (1) a resort in a specified country, (2) with king-beddedrooms, (3) that offers both golfing and scuba-diving. This kind ofsearch is simply beyond the scope of searches based on mere word matchesor category listings.

Host Websites permit qualitative second-round (third round, etc.)distillation of search results, which permit the further narrowing-downof the original results, according to qualitative parameters that can beselected by the user. There is no existing portal or search engine whichallows qualitative second-round distillation. (Some portals permitadditional words to be entered after an original search; but this is notqualitative distillation. Moreover, as an empirical matter, suchfeatures will only yield a useful result if the target entities wereknown in the first place, in which case they could have been founddirectly.)

Though primarily intended for those with websites, Host Websites admitlistings from those without websites, who would create an informationentry on the Host Website itself.

Host Websites represent a clear solution to the number one problemfacing the vast majority of website publishers (or would-be websitepublishers)—how to get their sites found. Publishers could simply signup online with a Host Website that covers their activity, and be assuredthat they will be found through it. For example, a small businesswebsite selling cookies has little chance of getting noticed by aportal; but if it were listed on a hypothetical Host Website forInternet Vendors, this Host Website would consistently attract anappropriate audience, and the cookie-vendor's chances of getting foundby people who want to buy cookies over the Web would increase greatly.

As a matter of fact, there are already websites whose subject isInternet Vendors, but because these sites are manually assembled andmanaged, and lack multi-parameter digital labelling, it is verydifficult for them to attract enough listings or enough traffic to reacha critical mass. Persons may use such sites once or twice, and then beunable to return later because they have forgotten the web address.Thus, such “list” sites themselves join the ranks of comparativelyanonymous sites which have trouble getting found.

A Host Website is so structured that creation of a listing on it can bedone by a person online at any time, without other human intervention,and have immediate effect.

The subscribing entity can use its real name on its listing. Incontrast, Internet-address conventions impose severe limits on how adomain name is structured, and many entities may not be able to obtain adomain name that closely resembles their real or trade names. In thissense, a Host Website is also incidentally a mechanism for translating atrade or everyday business name into an Internet address.

Listing on any Host Website is open and non-exclusionary. Any legitimateentity will enjoy an unequivocal right to be listed in any or all HostWebsites. For example, in a hypothetical Host Website for “Cars”, BoeingCorporation could list itself there if it wanted to. Given the tens ofmillions of Internet participants, self-agglomeration and the permittingof multiple listings represent the only feasible and sensible approachto sorting entities on the Internet. (The alternative, that an authoritywould evaluate every site on the Web in order to characterize each oneaccording to multiple parameters, is obviously unworkable, and unlikelyto lead to any more accurate or equitable results.)

A Host Website listing can be amended online by the listing partywithout other human intervention, with immediate effect. For example, ifa retail shop changes its email address, the new one can be immediatelyentered. In contrast, if a portal is carrying incorrect information(e.g., a link to a defunct web address), it is necessary to write to theportal and wait for a human to make the correction.

Host Website listings are multi-parameter digitally labelled withunambiguous information that is computer-manipulable. This greatlybenefits the subscriber by accurately identifying it when appropriate insearches.

Host Website sites are designed to assist both publishers and users.Publishers are those who seek to provide, through the Internet, a moreor less permanent and continuing source of information about themselves.One important feature of Host Websites is that they are open andnon-exclusionary on both the user side and the publisher side. Otherkinds of websites which are, in a loose sense, open and non-exclusionaryare auction, discussion, game, deal-broking, and similar sites. However,in all such sites the participants are users, not publishers. Theirparticipation is transactional in nature, and cannot be characterized asa “permanent and continuing source of information” in the same sense asby website publishers.

This is not merely splitting hairs. The universe of Internetparticipants whose primary concern is publishing includes all juridicalentities or businesses with websites, all educational institutions, andall government instrumentalities—in other words, the Internet's payingconstituents. On the one hand, the Internet offers passably-goodmechanisms, in the form of auction and discussion sites, for individualsto trade baseball cards or express their views on Britney Spears. Incontrast, the Internet has no good mechanisms for publishers, whosedomain-name fees provide most of the money for maintaining the Internetitself, to systematically reach or be found by their intended Internetaudiences. Host Websites offer such a mechanism.

The process of subscribing to a Host Website is designed forlayman-friendly operation, requiring no computer literacy (other thanthe ability to get on the Internet and type), and offering fail-safepaths and prompts to ensure that a listing is correctly entered.

The listing function on a Host Website has low-level artificialintelligence in that it adapts its line of questioning depending on theprevious answers, avoiding asking redundant or inapplicable questions.Only 5-10 minutes' time is required online to create a basic listing ona Host Website, making this by a wide margin the fastest and mosthassle-free way to establish a presence on the Internet.

Thus, Host Websites provide a ready means by which any entity can find asuitable niche for itself on the Internet, especially benefittingindividuals or small businesses with limited resources. This benefit isnot attainable without the subject-specific nature of a Host Website;for example, the hypothetical cookie vendor would have great difficultyfinding a suitable business category in a conventional portal. If itfound one, it would later discover that few people visit the portal withthe intent of looking for cookies.

Across the board and without exception, existing Business-to-Businesswebsites suffer from two flaws, one mechanical and the other conceptual.The mechanical flaw is extreme complexity, requiring lengthy anddiligent navigation, and a great deal of reading. Notwithstanding thiscomplexity, eventually all Business-to-Business sites fall back on humanjudgment at the site: “Tell us about yourself, and let's talk”. Thisflaw stems from the lack of a defined context for interactions. Theconceptual flaw is the belief that all goods and services are inherentlycommodities, whose buyers are substantially indifferent as to who thesellers are. This is patently not the case in real life. As any genuinebusiness-person knows, brand names, return policies, shipping times,tracking procedures, payment procedures or credit terms, physicallocation, and similar considerations always matter, and almost alwaysoutweigh mere price considerations.

By their nature as subject-specific sites, Host Websites can avoid themechanical flaw of excessive complexity. And by digitally labellingentries, Host Websites can be designed to quickly and readily conveyqualitative information about the sellers and buyers themselves,incorporating information of the types recited above, which will oftenbe useful in narrowing the field of potential trading partners. MostBusiness-to-Business site concepts can therefore best be served by theuse of the Host Website structure and related inventions.

Each Host Website can be individually designed for each subject and thepotential forms of interaction predicated by the subject, while stillpreserving the common fundamental concepts underlying all Host Websites.There are numerous plausible subjects for Host Websites. Many of themwould enable much-expanded Business-to-Business, Business-to-Consumer,and Consumer-to-Consumer applications, fore example: there can be a HostWebsite for Internet Vendors. The dilemma of Business-to-Consumer hasbeen that if one starts small, it is very difficult to get noticed andstay noticed; while if one starts big, one is forced to developcomplicated procurement, inventory, order-taking, and delivery systemsinstantly, a death-defying process which rarely ends well. Thus, HostWebsite would perform a useful economic and social function bysustaining visibility for small and medium vendors, allowing them todevelop at a rational pace (or indeed to stay small yet prosperous); aHost Website for each country; a Host Website for each city ormetropolitan area in the world with a million or more inhabitants; aHost Website for Visual Arts, which would link artists, galleries, andre-sellers with buyers around the world; a Host Website for Education,covering universities, colleges, preparatory schools, high schools,language schools, music schools and tutoring; manufacturers of any typesof equipment which schools need; textbook publishers and authors; a HostWebsite for Books which includes authors, books and periodicals,libraries, bookstores, book auctioneers, book clubs (sellers), booksocieties and discussion groups, book publishers, and book reviewers; aHost Website for Newspapers, Magazines, and Periodicals around theglobe; a Host Website for Science and Technology which includes journalsand publications of all kinds, associations, research groups,foundations, universities, museums, online demonstrations and displays;a Host Website for Movies, Music, and Entertainment which includespeople, companies, books, periodicals, software like CDs and tapes,vendors of memorabilia and other non-software products, catalogues ofreviews, fan clubs, talent agents, acting and singing instruction, andmusical instruction; a Host Website for Sports which includes people,companies, teams, tickets to events, manufacturers and retailers ofequipment and clothing, sports-related collectibles, books andmagazines, videos, vendors of accessories and gadgets for sports fans,and sports arenas and stadiums; a Host Website for Golf, which includesgolf courses and clubs, equipment and clothing, instruction, trainingdevices, gadgets and gifts, books and magazines, tickets to golf events,course designers and builders, hotels of special appeal to golfers, andgolfing holidays; a Host Website for Foods and Wines which includespurveyors of fine or international foods; small businesses selling a fewspecialized items; makers of food-processing or cooking equipment(industrial, commercial, and home); food and wine gadgets; providers offood raw materials, ingredients, and additives; a Host Website forChildren, with a global orientation and covering toys, books, clothes,education, special education, medical services, and assorted productsfor expectant mothers to toddlers to 18-year olds; a Host Website forLuxury Lifestyles, covering luxury goods and services plus specialtylegal, financial, and accounting services; second-hand luxury items;leasing; hotels and restaurants for the well-to-do: and real estate; aHost Website for Persons, whose function would be to allow persons ofall nationalities to reach and interact with each other over theInternet, where the use of multi-parameter digital labelling to identifypersonal characteristics and preferences can greatly assist the processof choosing persons to correspond with; a Host Website for Information,Discussion, Entertainment, and Advice, which would cover all websiteswhich are primarily constituted to offer any of these over the Web,including portals and list sites, discussion forums, online games,advice and “expert” sites, and comparison shopping sites; a Host Websitefor Online Intermediation, which would cover all websites which areprimarily constituted to introduce or provide a forum for buyers andsellers, such as auction sites and business-introduction sites; HostWebsites (one each) for different professional categories on a worldwidebasis, such as doctors, lawyers, etc., which includes publications,universities offering related degrees; practitioners, associations, andcompanies or sources which provide information, products, or services tothe profession; Host Websites (one each) for different industries ortypes of businesses on a global, regional, or country basis. Examples ofthese are Hotels and Resorts, Cars and Accessories, Boats and Yachts,Computer Software and Hardware, Home and Building Products, andGarments.

A logical extension to Host Websites is the “Host Website Central” or“Star-Portal”. The purpose of a Star-Portal would be to combine a widerange of Host Websites with different audiences and subject matters, allunder one convenient Internet address. With a multiplicity of HostWebsites, the public might soon lose track of Host Website addresses, orotherwise have difficulty identifying the particular Host Website theyneed. The Star-Portal would link to a plurality of Host Websites,avoiding this problem. Additionally, Star-Portals could offer “one-stop”listing procedures for entities which wished to list themselves on twoor more different Host Websites.

In a further elaboration of the usefulness of multi-parameter digitallabelling, provision could also be made for individuals to get listed ona Host Website, and have themselves digitally labelled. Such personaldigital labels could convey a variety of information, but one immediateapplication is in respect to spam and email solicitations in general.

Most observers decry the practice of spamming, the sending ofunsolicited emails on a scattergun basis to large numbers of emailaddresses. But in fact many persons are open to receiving unsolicitedemails in general, or at least email offers which relate to a subject inwhich they are interested. A problem only arises when large volumes ofunwanted spam flood an individual's email inbox.

Multi-parameter digital labels offer a solution, as shown in thefollowing methodology:

1. Visitors to a Host Website (whether as individuals or representativesof a company) would be offered the option to list themselves online.

2. A question-and-answer sequence, similar to that for a website, wouldensue, with a view to gathering basic demographic data and determiningwhich subjects the visitors would be willing to receive notices about.

3. In a non-specific context, creating a list of positive preferencesfor spam would be daunting for both the programmer and the responder.However, Host Websites provide an ideal means of getting around thisproblem, by defining a limited subject. For example, in a hypotheticalHost Website for Books, an individual could ask to receive noticesabout: new books in tightly-specified subjects, e.g., Egyptianarchaeology; new bookstores opening in their city or on the Internet;book launchings and author appearances; book society events in theircity; and so forth.

4. Having made their preferences known, listed persons could also amendthese preferences online, in similar fashion as for websites.

5. The Host Website would make the use of its I-Want-Mail listingsavailable to the trade, or those otherwise involved in the subject. Tocontinue with the Books Host Website example, publishers with new bookscould request the Host Website to send notices to the people who saidthey would be interested in this subject; while public-relationsconsultants could do the same in respect of book-launchings.

I-Want-Mail labels, in contrast, are a means of organizing emailsolicitation on the Internet for the benefit of both the recipients (whocan select what subjects they really want), and the senders (who cansend their solicitations to self-identified parties with some assuranceof commercial success, while avoiding bothering the general public). Thewidespread use of I-Want-Mail labelling would provide genuine benefitsto the large majority of Internet participants by channellinginformation, of a specified nature, to those interested in receiving it.

A special ergonomic graphic interface has been designed for HostWebsites and Star-Portals, consisting of a fixed, non-scrolling, andessentially unchanging “main frame” which entirely surrounds a simulatedvideo screen or screens, which are the only parts of the monitor displaywhich actually change as a user navigates around the Host Website. Anexample is shown in FIG. 7 with a main-frame 101 which entirelysurrounds a screen or screens 102.

With most websites, each time another page within the site is accessed,the entire physical-monitor screen display (except the browser toolbars)is “washed away” and replaced with new images and text. (That the newpage may re-create some images from the previous page, e.g., a websitelogo or toolbar does not change the fact that the screen was in effectcleared and then re-drawn.)

The simulated-console display has the following advantages:

1. Toolbars, such as toolbars 103, and repeating graphics do not have tobe re-drawn by the computer each time a new page is accessed. Thisspeeds up the loading of new pages.

2. Simulated-console displays allow a more logical placement of commands104 and buttons 106 with different functions for expected frequencies ofuse, making site navigation more intuitive and less reading-intensivethan the single-toolbar approach used by a few sites. This kind ofdisplay could thus be described as “ergonomic”.

3. The permanent location of the simulated screens 102 within theconsole provides a visual cue which reduces the visual and mental strainneeded to understand a display or to find information on the displays.For example, a main screen could display the content asked for in asearch, while a smaller guide screen could offer advice to the user onwhat to do next. Knowing that the smaller screen usually displays“advice”, a user (after a little practice) will instinctively turn hisor her eye to that screen when help is needed.

4. By representing a physical object, the simulated-console displayseems more inviting and provides an ersatz “tactile” dimension whichwill be appreciated by most if not all users. Many users with a“right-brain” orientation will find the simulated-console display easierto use than conventional website interfaces, thus facilitating Internetparticipation by a large segment of the public.

5. Providing a constant main-frame 101 eliminates the risk that a userwill get lost within a site or have difficulty navigating it. Thecurrent art of providing site “maps” is perhaps useful to themechanically-inclined, but does little to guide the averagenon-mechanical lay-person.

6. Finally, the use of screens-within-the-real-screen permits theorderly presentation of online advertising when a given screen is idle,without cluttering the overall look of a page and without confusing theuser as to which items are part of the website and which are transientadvertising.

In summary, the Host Website's graphic interface, a simulated-consoledisplay, offers many advantages over other webpage designs. While thiskind of interface will not be appropriate for all publishers, it isparticularly well-suited to websites which need to display a largevariety of different kinds of information in an orderly and appealingmanner. Examples of such websites are: portals, list sites, newspapersand magazines, online catalogues, and online vendors in general.

Alternate Embodiments

Insufficiency or lack of clarity of information makes marketsinefficient. For example if two used cars of equal make, year, andcondition are for sale, but a potential buyer is aware of only one ofthem, the buyer may end up paying a higher price than necessary. Arelated problem is that decisions based on insufficient or wronginformation may be ineffective or costly, and if widespread can becostly to society as a whole. For example, if many car purchasers wereunaware of the availability of a particular safety feature orsafe-driving practice, then in aggregate there may be more accidentsthan might otherwise have been the case, entailing greatly more socialcosts than the safety feature or safe-driving practice would have.

A practical example of these problems is health care insurance.Insurance companies do not have reliable statistics on the generalhealth of the population, or on the long-term costs of health careassociated with certain medical conditions. As a result, healthinsurance premiums may be higher than they need to be.

From the viewpoint of individuals desiring insurance, finding andcomparing types of coverage is tedious and complicated, health careinformation is not systematically available to the average layman, andpersonal health in aggregate may suffer. In contrast, by beingpersonally aware of the latest developments in medications, medicaldevices, correlations between diseases and lifestyle, ethnicity, age,and residence (among others), individuals could make better-informedchoices about their health.

Current methods of maintaining medical records are often merely onpaper; or if on a computer, are in mere text form which cannot besearched accurately. And in all events these records are “local” andidiosyncratic to a doctor, a hospital or at most a hospital system: werea person to move to a new town, the old medical record would have to bereconstructed, or might just be ignored. And there is no way to providea “big picture” of the healthiness of people in a country without makingrisky extrapolations.

A preferred embodiment addresses the need for a national informationsystem which is easy to access, a Health Database Website open for allpersons and entities connected to health and health care. Each person(probably aided by a specially-trained health-care professional,possibly in the context of personal health insurance) could open apersonal health record and provide data which in effect labels him orher medically and health-wise, thus becoming an “Individual HealthDatabase Subscriber” (or “Individual Subscriber”). After a record hasbeen created, it would be added to over time by different parties. Thiswould constitute a continuing record of personal health, diagnoses ofdisease, prescriptions, accidents, test scores, and so forth, that ispermanent and accessible (by authorized parties) anywhere in the countryor the world.

An entity which provides products or services related to health couldalso subscribe to be on the database, using digital labels to identifyits particular qualities, thus becoming a “Health Provider Subscriber”.A hospital, for example, could digitally label its specialties, itsgeographic location, its diagnostic facilities, and other qualities;Individual Health Database Subscribers could search for an appropriatehospital when needed. A pharmaceutical and supplement companies coulddigitally label the medical conditions for which they offer remedies, sothat an Individual who searched for “arthritis remedies” could obtain alist of different products (not necessarily just prescription medicines)which are claimed to treat arthritis. A doctor could label his or hermedical degree, specialization, and specific skills, as well as his orher geographic location and hours or days available to receive patients,so that Individual Subscribers with certain ailments, or their familypractitioners, could easily search for a doctor when needed.

Insurance companies would be “Insurance Providers” in the database. Theycould provide digitally-labelled information about their variouscoverage plans, their geographic reach, and the price ranges. They couldalso research the database but in addition would have the possibility ofsending communications (such as offers of coverage, or advice onlifestyle choices) to individual persons listed, based on the healthprofiles, ailments, etc., of those individual persons. This wouldprobably lead to a larger-variety of coverage plans, which meet theneeds of more people, more closely.

Moreover, insurance companies would be able to compete for a person'sbusiness through an online intermediation process. If several insurancecompanies periodically made such offers to many or all of the personshealth-labelled on the database, then each person would be somewhatassured of being able to select the best deal for his or her needs.

Websites which provide health-related information would be “HealthInformation Providers” in the database. They would have no authorizationto scan the database or view records, but Individual Subscribers couldsearch for information on specific health subjects and be guided to thevarious Health Information Providers which have subscribed on thedatabase and which have something to say about the subject searched for.

There would also be a benefit in actual health. Pharmaceuticalcompanies, medical-device manufacturers, and even food supplementproviders with pertinent products could quickly and cost-effectivelybring these to the attention of a large number of potential customers ofa specified health profile, e.g., diabetics, people with asthma, peopleunder end-of-life care, etc. Because people or at least their physicianswould be more aware of their treatment options and be able to readilycompare costs, they would experience better health care and be moresatisfied with the general health-care system. An interface would beprovided to allow Health Provider Subscribers to initiate research inthese fields.

Hospitals or clinics could periodically take note of personal medicalhistories of persons residing in their service area, and bycross-reference to age, ailment, and other factors, could remindspecific persons when a checkup or other procedure is desirable. Anounce of prevention being worth a pound of cure, this would save costsfor all concerned in the long run.

Notices and advertisements could be sent to people in a benevolent kindof spam. In regard to demographic or medical characteristics that theyhave, Health Database Subscribers would be able to elect how often theyare willing to receive email (e.g., monthly, quarterly, never), andwould be able to report senders who send irrelevant or misleadingsolicitations.

Hospitals, physicians, pharmaceuticals, and others could also search thepersonal-health database with a view to discovering what ailments are onthe rise or on the decline in the general population of the country, orin the general population of a given geographic area, what treatmentsseem to reduce long-term costs or quicker recovery from ailments, andsimilar matters, and this would guide them in research and productdevelopment and design, personal specialization, choice of hardware toinvest in, and other aspects of their business or profession.

Asymmetric Access. Unlike most search engines or Host Websites withdigital labels, whose labels are open for use by the general public on asymmetric basis, the subscribers to a Health Database Website would bedifferently qualified, for example:

An Individual Subscriber could view his or her personal record byproviding an appropriate password or correctly answering questions aboutthe record, but not the records of other individuals. An IndividualSubscriber could also freely search the database for Health ProviderSubscribers of different types. An Individual Subscriber could alsofreely search the database, with his or her personal records as astarting point, for Insurance Providers who offer coverage for whichthis Individual Subscriber would be eligible.

A dentist could view the dental records of an Individual Subscriber inhis or her care, but not the non-relevant parts of an IndividualSubscriber's medical history, or records of other individuals.

A physician would be authorized to view the entirety of an IndividualSubscriber's records if in his or her care, but not the records of otherindividuals unless they explicitly agree.

A pharmaceutical company; a maker or distributor of medical, exercise,therapeutic, or diagnostic devices; a purveyor of health supplements andherbs; and similar types of subscriber would be authorized to scan thedatabase for the purpose of extracting statistics, but would not beauthorized to view any Individual Subscriber record. This kind of partywould also be authorized to search for a list of Individuals with aconfiguration of specified characteristics as revealed by their labels;and would have the option to send email or other communications to theIndividuals found, but this would be done through the intermediation ofthe Health Database Website so that the actual names would not be knownto the sender of the communication.

An insurance company would be authorized to scan the database forstatistics, and would have the option to send email or othercommunications to the Individuals found, but this would be done throughthe intermediation of the Health Database Website so that the actualnames would not be known to the insurance company.

A hospital, clinic, or treatment facility would be authorized to searchthe database for lists of Individuals with a configuration of specifiedcharacteristics (for example, geographic proximity for patients with agiven condition) as revealed by their labels; and would have the optionto send email or other communications to the Individuals found, but thiswould be done through the intermediation of the Health Database Websiteso that the actual names would not be known to the sender of thecommunication.

An emergency-response unit would be authorized to view relevant parts ofan Individual's record, such as blood type, currently-applicable medicalconditions, medical prostheses, and allergies, but not irrelevant otherparts, such as past pregnancies or diagnoses of STDs.

As a further check against misuse, each access event would be logged.

Advantages for Individual Subscribers. The individuals who maintaintheir health records in the Health Database Website would benefit inseveral direct and indirect ways:

If a person falls ill while traveling, or if he or she requiresemergency services, all the relevant personal medical history couldquickly be accessed by authorized personnel.

When a person moved to a new town or tried a different physician orhospital, or changed insurer, he or she would not need to fill outlengthy questionnaires or undergo unnecessary repeat tests; the newphysician or hospital would only need to look up that person's recordthrough the Internet.

When a person applied for health insurance or life insurance, thepotential insurers would be looking at the same health picture, so theirquotes would be comparable and competitive. The Health Database Websitecould be configured to automatically evaluate a person based on his orher history recorded on the database, and to periodically or uponrequest offer a list of health care policies for which the person isqualified. This would lower insurance costs for the insured parties,while reducing overhead and costs of marketing for the providers ofproducts or services.

A continuing record of diagnoses, blood tests, ECGs, prescriptions, andthe like would assist physicians in making accurate evaluations anduseful recommendations for each individual. This would improve actualhealth of Health Database Subscribers. This would lower actualhealth-care costs, which would benefit insurers and eventually lead tolower premiums.

As a medium for searching for and receiving information andadvertisements related to health care, the Health Database Website wouldhelp make people better-informed, which would improve their actualhealth over time by apprising them of new scientific findings,medications and devices, and procedures. This would not only lowerlong-run costs but also improve the quality of life of the HealthDatabase Subscribers.

With a single authorization, a Health Database Subscriber couldauthorize several parties to view or share his or her individual healthrecords, according to specified rules.

By indicating that he or she is open to participating in clinicaltrials, a person could signal to pharmaceutical companies or researchlaboratories this willingness, thus possibly being eligible toparticipate in trials without having to scour newspapers and magazinesfor advertisements of upcoming trials.

Advantages for Health Provider and Insurance Subscribers: They would beable to obtain statistics of various kinds, on a nationwide level. Thiswould guide them in research, business decisions, pricing, and otherdecisions.

They would be able to advertise, to bring their products and services tothe attention of a high-relevance audience in a cost-effective way,rather than (for example) having to advertise on national TV. Theintermediation of the Host Website or search engine would allow this tobe done without the advertiser knowing the specific addressees.

They would easily be found in a relevant search by IndividualSubscribers looking for certain services or products, or according towhatever combination of characteristics (e.g., a cardiologist with morethan 20 years' experience, a life insurance company operating in Georgiawith at least a BBB credit rating).

Advantages for Society: Better health for the general population, with areduction in the social and economic costs caused by disease and poorhealth.

Variations, offshoots, and modifications of the system are possible, aswould be apparent to a person having ordinary skill in the art. Forexample, the system can be used in relation to apparel, leisure goods,consumer goods, entertainment, and other fields. By knowing the weight,height, waistline, and age of a large number of people, an apparelmanufacturer or retail chain could design clothes to better fit morepeople.

Foregoing described embodiments of the invention are provided asillustrations and descriptions. They are not intended to limit theinvention to precise form described. In particular, it is contemplatedthat functional implementation of invention described herein may beimplemented equivalently in hardware, software, firmware, and/or otheravailable functional components or building blocks, and that networksmay be wired, wireless, or a combination of wired and wireless. Othervariations and embodiments are possible in light of above teachings, andit is thus intended that the scope of invention not be limited by thisDetailed Description but by the claims following.

1. A method of labelling at least one of Internet websites and recordsaccessible through the Internet, comprising: creating and encoding ofdata on the searchable content of the website or accessible recordaccording to an agreed convention, so as to produce a plurality oflabels for each website or record, or each of the plurality of websitesor records, each label representing a particular item of said data;incorporating the created labels in a file resident on the website orrecord; copying and storing the labels on a search engine's owncomputer; providing the right of access to the search engine's or HostWebsite's computer through the Internet for purposes of editing therecords; and facilitating searches and record retrievals based on thelabels, by a plurality of authorized parties each with defined andlimited scope or nature of access, for said websites or records.
 2. Themethod of claim 1 further comprising: storing of the labels in acomputer or network by the search engine or Host Website.
 3. The methodof claim 1 further comprising: labelling and listing of subscribingpersons, entities and their records through an online interface of atleast one of the search engine and Host Website wherein the labellingand listing comprises: creation or provision of a unique identifier codefor that person or entity; creating and encoding data about the personor entity to produce a plurality of labels for each person or entity,each label representing a particular item of said data; obtainingexplicit authority from the persons or entities to use or share theirdata or records in specified ways with specified types of party; andproviding the right of access to the search engine's or Host Website'scomputer through the Internet for purposes of editing a part of a saidrecord; facilitating searches and record retrievals based on the labels,by a single or plurality of authorized parties each with defined andlimited scope or nature of access.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein thedata that is represented by a label or labels is at least one of medicaldata, dental data, and physical measurement data such as height, weight,foot size, hand size, ring size, waist measurement, chest measurement,hip measurement, about a specific person.
 5. The method of claim 1wherein the personal data that is represented by a label or labelsrefers to a specific person's personal background or ethnic origin, aspecific person's area of residence, stress, environmental, andcontagion factors related to the area of residence, a specific person'soccupation, or stress, environmental, and contagion factors related tothe occupation.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein the data that isrepresented by a label is at least one of a medical event, medical testresult or finding, hospital admission, inoculation, surgery, andprovision of a prosthesis in regard to a specific person.
 7. The methodof claim 1 wherein the data that is represented by a label is at leastone of a diagnosis of a particular disease or medical condition, arecord of an accident, injury, an acute episode of a medical nature, anyrelated prescription, and health, accident, life insurance policies, andthe type and frequency of health-related information that the personwishes to receive by email or other medium.
 8. The method of claim 1wherein the data that is represented by a label or labels, or the dataon a record, may be retrieved or viewed in whole or in part byauthorized parties according to different types of access authorization.9. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing by the authorizedparties, a legally-enforceable undertaking as to the confidentiality ofany information that they might obtain from the Health Database Website,including which other parties, if any, they are authorized to share theinformation with.
 10. The method of claim 1 further comprisingauthorizing a single or plurality of eligible parties to make differentkinds of entries to a personal record, consistent with different kindsof authority.
 11. The method of claim 1 further comprising scanning ofthe database by authorized parties for the purpose of extractingstatistics, wherein the said authorized parties are not necessarilyauthorized to retrieve or view a specific person's record.
 12. Themethod of claim 1 further comprising: searching the database byauthorized parties; and generating lists of persons with at least one ofcommon medical and personal characteristic that may have a bearing onhealth or longevity, wherein the said parties are not necessarilyauthorized to retrieve or view a specific person's record except forname and contact information.
 13. The method of claim 1, wherein thedata that is represented by a label or labels refers to at least one ofthe qualifications, academic degrees, facilities, equipment,specializations, types of service performed, geographic location orlocations, and opening hours of a person or entity.
 14. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the data that is represented by a label or labelsrefers to at least one of the cost, price, and billing or paymentmodalities that apply to a service or product, and consumable productsor durable devices manufactured, distributed, rented, sold, or givengratis.
 15. The method of claim 2, further comprising: providing by thesearch engine or Host Website, an interface which permits each personwith a record on the search engine or Host Website to stipulate whichparties may have access to the record, and which part of the record maybe viewed or retrieved by said stipulated parties, such stipulationbeing changeable by the person through the interface.
 16. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the viewing or record retrieval is conducted onlineover the Internet.
 17. The method of claim 2 further comprising:charging at least one of a one-time and periodic fee for the right tomaintain records on the search engine or Host Website.
 18. The method ofclaim 17 further comprising: charging at least one of a one-time andperiodic fee to a health-care insurer, physician, or facility in respectof the creation and maintenance of a health record for a particularindividual; charging record entry fees for the right to add to themedical record of a person; wherein the fees are charged on a periodicbasis or when the balance reaches a certain amount.
 19. The method ofclaim 1 further comprising charging transaction fees for messages sentto listed persons by senders of information, and wherein the HostWebsite or search engine undertakes to send a communication to saidpersons found in a search, on behalf of the searcher.
 20. The method ofclaim 2 further comprising charging search fees to entities makingsearches whose output is a list of persons with specifiedcharacteristics as revealed by the labels associated with their records,wherein such search fees are at least one of a fixed sum, and a chargeper person who is turned up in the search.
 21. The method of claim 2further comprising charging database research fees for the right toderive statistics from the plurality of labels recorded in the database.